Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2015-03-18 08:21 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2015-03-18 08:21 pm
Entry tags:
Like Proper Kidnappers.
I seem to be replaying every Final Fantasy game I own in an attempt to distract myself from the fact that Final Fantasy Type-0 is finally coming out in the West, finally, after three and a half years, and I can't play it because I don't have a PS4. Today I'm talking about Final Fantasy XII!
I've never really been able to grasp the plot of Final Fantasy XII - I often feel I'm just drifting from place to place, not really knowing what our goal is - and I've always sort of assumed that the plot is just incomprehensible. It's only now, on my third playthrough, that I realise the thing that kicks everything off - 'Ashe wants to depose Vayne, but first needs proof that she's the heir to the throne if she wants to be accepted as ruler afterwards' - is actually perfectly straightforward. I've just missed vast swathes of the plot on account of only paying attention to Balthier. There are significant cutscenes I have absolutely no memory of.
Balthier, I love you, but you have severely impaired my understanding of this game.
Ashe, in all her anger and pride, has caught my attention this time around in a way she didn't on my previous playthroughs. Which is good, because Ashe is at the centre of the plot, so paying attention to her should actually help me understand this game, unlike some charming but distracting characters I could mention.
More than any other game in the series, Final Fantasy XII creates a sense of a huge, real, intricate world. There are always multiple routes to take. There are optional areas all over the place. You cover a huge amount of ground, but you're always aware that the huge expanse you've crossed is only a small part of the world; there's so much out there you never see.
It works extremely well, but I wonder whether it's part of the reason I always feel slightly detached from this game. The areas are so vast and complicated that I never bother to learn my way around; I'm always checking the map. Drop me into the world of Final Fantasy VIII, and I'll be able to find my way to the nearest hotel (unless you're an arsehole and drop me in Centra or the ocean). I, er, won't be able to check myself in, because I'm not a SeeD and I have no gil, but I'll be able to get there.
Ivalice is vast and beautiful, but I only ever feel like a tourist there; I've never really come to know it. In Spira or the unnamed world of Final Fantasy VIII, I'm at home.
I've never really been able to grasp the plot of Final Fantasy XII - I often feel I'm just drifting from place to place, not really knowing what our goal is - and I've always sort of assumed that the plot is just incomprehensible. It's only now, on my third playthrough, that I realise the thing that kicks everything off - 'Ashe wants to depose Vayne, but first needs proof that she's the heir to the throne if she wants to be accepted as ruler afterwards' - is actually perfectly straightforward. I've just missed vast swathes of the plot on account of only paying attention to Balthier. There are significant cutscenes I have absolutely no memory of.
Balthier, I love you, but you have severely impaired my understanding of this game.
Ashe, in all her anger and pride, has caught my attention this time around in a way she didn't on my previous playthroughs. Which is good, because Ashe is at the centre of the plot, so paying attention to her should actually help me understand this game, unlike some charming but distracting characters I could mention.
More than any other game in the series, Final Fantasy XII creates a sense of a huge, real, intricate world. There are always multiple routes to take. There are optional areas all over the place. You cover a huge amount of ground, but you're always aware that the huge expanse you've crossed is only a small part of the world; there's so much out there you never see.
It works extremely well, but I wonder whether it's part of the reason I always feel slightly detached from this game. The areas are so vast and complicated that I never bother to learn my way around; I'm always checking the map. Drop me into the world of Final Fantasy VIII, and I'll be able to find my way to the nearest hotel (unless you're an arsehole and drop me in Centra or the ocean). I, er, won't be able to check myself in, because I'm not a SeeD and I have no gil, but I'll be able to get there.
Ivalice is vast and beautiful, but I only ever feel like a tourist there; I've never really come to know it. In Spira or the unnamed world of Final Fantasy VIII, I'm at home.
no subject
Youtube "let's play" ahoy!
I'm glad you're having an awesome retro time!
no subject
no subject
no subject
I still have no idea what's going on FFXII, and I think I played it through twice? Or at least watched someone else play it once and played it myself twice. Oh well.
Although I also didn't really have a firm grasp on the world of FFXIII, either. I wish we could have done more exploring of Cocoon, but I can also understand why that would have been difficult to fit into the story.
no subject
no subject
I agree with you on that; my intense love for the characters and the concepts helped to anchor me to that game, but I don't know the world. It's curious that XII and XIII have somehow managed to develop the same problem through completely different approaches. You can't know Ivalice because there's just too much of it; you could wander around for hours and barely scratch the surface. You can't know Cocoon because the game drives you relentlessly onwards through areas you'll never revisit. XIII's pacing is great, particularly compared to XII, but it is quite sad that there's no sense of exploration.
If you do replay them, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
(EDIT: I'm extremely relieved, incidentally, to hear that someone else has no idea what the plot of this game is.)
no subject
Although I also didn't really have a firm grasp on the world of FFXIII, either.
It took me a long while to figure out that FFXIII didn't do something that most other Final Fantasy games have done since day one: it didn't spoon feed you the lore of the world. The focus of the game was on the character development, and the immediate plot at hand, but if you wanted to know anything extracurricular, so to speak, you had to go into the menu, open up that vast codec that was CONSTANTLY being filled with stuff as you played, and read. Read everything and anything that came your way.
I was incredibly lost all the same in XIII as I played. Fal'cie? L'cie? Pulse? Focus? Gran Pulse? What was all of this foreign terminology, and how did it all play in? That was my whole thought process until about Chapter 11. It seemed that when the game stopped being incredibly linear (which I don't mind, but just feels different), I then took the time to explore more of the game, which included that reference material. It was then I sat back, and truly appreciated all that XIII had to offer.
I hope this helps, should either of you choose to replay it again. :) It really is a glorious game in all of the best ways.
no subject
One thing I really liked about Final Fantasy XIII-2 was the rewards you got for completing sidequests: Fragments, which contained little snippets of backstory and worldbuilding. You also got experience points, which were nice, but it was much more exciting to check a Fragment and discover some information about what the characters from the previous game had been up to, or some history about the places you'd visited, or, in one memorable instance, a lengthy poem about sheep.
no subject
I have an inherent dislike for that kind of ...world development, I guess I'll call it. Because the world itself is as much a character in the Final Fantasy series as the characters themselves, and often really shape how I feel about the game.
I personally really value stories where I learn the shape and feel of the world organically, where I uncover its secrets as I explore. I want the information to come from different sources, and I want to feel like what I'm done is somehow connected to that, or that the information I'm getting somehow matters to the characters I'm playing. Games that offer that information in the form of scrolls or text usually don't hit that button for me. (Mostly I just end up being cranky because I'm playing a video game! Not reading a book, dangit! Also because I hate reading longer texts on my TV, it makes my eyes hurt.) But, like. I get that a lot of people do find that really rewarding, and I can understand that. It just doesn't do it for me.
So, uh, yes. I'm absolutely certain that you're right and I would've got a lot more out of FFXIII had I actually bothered to read all the back story, but, uh. I rather crankily ignored it instead and suspect I will do that again on the next playthrough. :(
HAVING SAID THAT, I do vaguely remember
no subject
This. This right here. Oh man. I couldn't have said it better myself. I can really, really appreciate and respect that.
I'm right there with you. As I said, it took me 11 of the 13 chapters to finally sit down and read through all of it (oh, and there was so much...). It's certainly not my preferred way either, but I know without it, I would have been far less immersed in the game, and increasingly far less invested. I mean up until that point I was saying, "I get HOW they all got together, but WHY are they all together?" The individual stories were fleshed out so well, but I was missing the bigger picture, so to speak.
I wonder if there's a codec or something available for mobile platforms (or maybe someone took the time to post it all online?) to make it easier for you? I can totally be on board with the eye strain and the like, and get why that would also add to the reluctance of wanting to read through them, so maybe we can find you a better alternative? If I can find something, I'll send it your way!
no subject
Sorry, not sorry. In return, I'll start a fund where we can raise you money for a PS4 so you can play it. <3
One of the things that challenged me the most about FFXII is the fact that the game wanted to switch the main characters around to appeal to the generations that were playing this game, and because of that, made the plot PAINFULLY aware that Vaan and Penelo just didn't belong. Honestly, all of Final Fantasy could have been told with just Ashe and Basch. Vaan and Penelo feel HORRIBLY out of place, and Balthier/Fran, as much as I absolutely adore them and their relationship together, are merely a side quest. They have their own agenda, which is fine, but this is not their game by any stretch.
You talk about the sense of a huge, real, intricate world, and I am immediately brought to the first time you boot up the game and get into Dalmasca, in the marketplace that is hustling and bustling with "real" people, all doing their own thing, and barely paying any attention to you. It felt so alive to me, and so different from the "talk to any NPC, and they'll talk to you, even if it's not significant." I felt far more immersed in Dalmasca than I have felt in any town to date in a Final Fantasy game.
While I do feel like I know Spira as if I lived there, or any other world that the Final Fantasy games take place in, nothing feels as historic and real as Ivalice. They took the time to really craft out the lore and history of the realm, which makes it feel more real to me. I think of myself, in a small city, in a state, inside of the United States, and realize that I've only been to see such a small percentage of what this world has to offer me. I've read about it, I know it exists, and I know some of it doesn't exist anymore. But I know it's there, and that makes it all the more intriguing to me. That's how I feel about Ivalice.
The Ivalice Alliance was an astounding project, and one I hope they return to someday to appease some of your curiosity, as well as to satiate my lust for more knowledge. They're doing the same thing now with the Fabula Nova Crystallis project, and I think we'll see very similar results.
no subject
Most of the party really is oddly detached from the plot in XII, but I think the larger problem for me was that the party members felt oddly detached from each other. There are other Final Fantasy games in which members of the party aren't really necessary for the overall story, but they usually feel like they at least belong in the party; they have a connection to the people they're travelling with. Obviously there's a connection between Vaan and Penelo, and between Balthier and Fran, but the six party members never really come to feel like a group, which makes me a little sad. My main sense of the party dynamics is 'Ashe is driving the plot, Basch is helping her for the sake of his honour, and everyone else is just sort of tagging along to see what happens'. I feel like the characters of VII or VIII or XIII will stay in touch for the rest of their lives, but in XII I feel everyone will just go their own way once the story is over (in fact, that's explicitly what happens in the ending).
They took the time to really craft out the lore and history of the realm
That's absolutely true! I love that all the towns you visit have their own history you can learn about. There's just so much to Ivalice that I don't think I'll ever feel familiar with it in the way I do with, say, Spira. Which isn't a bad thing; the overwhelming nature of the world helps it feel more real (as you say, we can't ever experience the whole of this world, although we can know it's there). But I do slightly miss the sense of 'yes, this is my home, I know this place' I have when playing other games in the series. (I am quite fond of Dalmasca, though.)
no subject
That makes sense; and it certainly does tie into the fact that the actual, true plot of FFXII really only involves Ashe and Basch. Vaan wants to be a sky pirate, Penelo wants to watch over Vaan. Balthier IS a sky pirate. Fran is Balthier's partner. None of those four characters say anything about the throne/kingdom/future of Ivalice (although in a vague sense, the REASON Vaan wants to be a sky pirate is to cause chaos for the same government that usurped the throne from Ashe, killed his brother, and left him homeless so ... maybe it works?). They all sort of just run into each other coincidentally, and it feels very forced as to why they travel together. And it's painfully evident, even in the dialog. I couldn't agree more though.
Yes! There's definitely a different kind of nostalgia that is built when you intimately know a world or place like Spira, but there's a vast craving for knowledge and immense wonder that surrounds a place like Ivalice.